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Canadians won’t know cost of Iraq mission for months

OTTAWA—Canadian fighter jets are flying every day on missions over Iraq but it could be months before taxpayers learn the tab of Canada’s latest combat mission.

CF-18s dropped their first bombs on Sunday, striking construction equipment that defence officials say was being used by Islamic State fighters to divert water from the Euphrates River near Fallujah and force civilians and Iraqi security units into areas containing improvised explosive devices.

As well, the equipment was being used by militants to build defensive positions, Lt.-Gen. Jonathan Vance, commander of the Canadian Joint Operations Command, said Tuesday.

Flying from their base in Kuwait, the CF-18s dropped 500-lb. laser-guided bombs in an attack that destroyed and damaged the equipment and vehicles and “removed them from further employment,” Vance told a briefing.

He said there was no collateral damage but declined to say if Islamic State fighters, also known as ISIL, were killed in the attack.

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“We are certain the vehicles were static when they were struck and we are certain they had been used repeatedly by ISIL,” Vance said.

Details of the target struck by the CF-18s had been released a day earlier by the Pentagon.

Last month, the Conservative government approved the launch of combat operations against Islamic State fighters who occupy swaths of Syria and Iraq. Canada has deployed six CF-18 fighters, two CP-140 Aurora surveillance aircraft and one CC-150 Polaris air-to-air tanker, plus 600 military personnel, operating out of a base in Kuwait.

“At this stage, we’re flying virtually every day with all aircraft types. There will be gaps put in there for maintenance,” Vance told reporters at defence headquarters.

But neither the military nor the government are prepared to provide any estimates on just how much the six-month mission will cost.

Vance said the military has provided the government with a cost estimate for the mission, but refused to divulge what it was.

“I’m not prepared to talk about it,” Vance said.

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Later, he said that taxpayers would be told of the costs at “appropriate intervals as determined by government.”

A spokesperson for Defence Minister Rob Nicholson said the figures will be made public the “regular parliamentary reporting processes.

“We know for a fact that there will be incremental costs,” Johanna Quinney said in an email.

However, she did not say when that parliamentary reporting will happen or when Canadians could expect to see a cost for the combat operations.

Vance said the CF-18s fighters have flown 18 sorties; the CC-150 Polaris air-to-air tanker has flown four missions; and Auroras flown five surveillance flights.

On Oct. 31, an Aurora used its high-tech surveillance equipment to identify a “key ISIL base” that was hit by allied aircraft. The Aurora then did battle damage assessments to determine the success of the bombing raid.

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